Out-of-the-way, But Elegant

The music was perfect for the evening: A classical guitarist in black tie and tuxedo playing, ever so softly, ''When You Wish Upon a Star.''

Yes, we were ''at Disney,'' albeit in one of its most discreet corners, the Gulf Coast Room of the Contemporary Hotel. Here even the stone-hearted would be touched by Jiminy Cricket's song.

Like that melody, the restaurant proves that Disney has quality as well as cuteness.

The Gulf Coast Room is a small, out-of-the-way banquet room set aside as a culinary showcase. The room itself is rather plain, containing heavy Empire chairs and paneled screens, an institutional ceiling of acoustic tile and dark wood paneling decorated with a forest of Marimekko-style birch trees. The result is much too dark and ersatz elegant, but the room has surprising intimacy for such a makeshift setting.

I didn't mind the decor, because the food was imaginative and sometimes stunning. The chef has drawn recipes from several cuisines, from classic to New American and Caribbean; it's distressing that all the ingredients were not at hand on my visits. As a bonus, however, there's enough cheese and produce for a very classy vegetarian spread.

Take the bread, for starters -- beautiful, flat baguettes smaller than lady fingers, and exquisite when fresh from the oven. They were served with three butters, basil, honey and strawberry. The basil is best for a dinner meal, but I couldn't resist trying the sweeter ones, too.

The appetizers are just as creative. A huge plate of oyster and Brie soup ($4.50) was as smooth as the best oyster stew in New England, made even richer by the cheese. The oysters were plump and perfectly cooked. The Soho crock ($4), was more elaborate than French onion soup, but actually lighter. The crock contained onion broth, tiny noodles and thin slices of sausage with a light brioche crust topped with a drizzle of melted Stilton cheese. The vegetable cannelloni ($5.25), stuffed with julienned carrots and served with a sharp Italian cheese sauce, needed much more ricotta cheese in the stuffing, however.

On one occasion (not a dieting night), I treated myself to both appetizer and salad, and was delighted with the salad Mandeville ($8.50 for two). This mixture of greens and seafood (your choice of spiced shrimp, smoked oysters, tuna, halibut, scallops and calamari) is tossed at tableside with a unique dressing of hazelnut oil, Frangelica liqueur and pureed raspberries. An unusually fruity dressing for seafood, but it worked for me.

The sorbet was an intense raspberry that would have done well as a dessert. The best of the entrees was poulet Montracher ($18), two exceptionally tender chicken breasts in a sweet brown sauce of guava and pecans, accompanied that night by a roasted potato and kiwi slices. The side dish ($1.75) was a squash filled with baby broccoli and cauliflower. Every element was perfectly cooked and seasoned. So, too, was a brochette of seafood, although the lobster tail and scallops in dill sauce were the best. The lamb chops Orloff ($21) were too rich for me: three chops topped with a pate-and-mushroom mix and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Two chops and a garnish with more tartness would have suited me better. The least innovative entree was the entrecote ($22). The steak was big but ordinary -- not butter-knife tender or exceptional in flavor -- and none of the mushrooms appeared to be chanterelles as the menu specified.

The most unusual entree was a vegetable plate, legumes Vanessa ($17). This included a broiled tomato concasseur with julienned vegetables, husky fresh asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, a squash boat, the vegetable cannelloni and a poached egg on toast. Fine enough, but the menu had promised artichokes, lentils and fennel bulbs. Such massive substitution was inexcusable without warning. Besides, shouldn't Jiminy Cricket have a ready source of a vegetable whose Italian name is finocchio?

The best of the desserts was a light Brie cheesecake with a rich raspberry sauce ($4.50) and a fresh fruit ''collage,'' a truly picturesque array of kiwi, pineapple, melon and grapes with chambord cream. The only after-dinner disappointment was that the by-the-glass dessert wines on the wine list were unavailable.

Given all the fruit and vegetables here, a dieter has plenty of choices. In fact, one could have a full-course meal of salad, vegetable plate and a fruit dessert. But it would be piggish.

There is so much abundance that the scarcities and lapses are noticeable. Yet it's hard for me to snarl when I leave a fancy dinner discreetly humming ''Zip-a-dee Doo-Dah'' -- or carrying a spare lamb chop in aluminum foil shaped into large Mouseketeer ears.